Volume 9 No. 2 - Adask's law

Milosovic Indicted
for Abusing
Emergency Powers
by Alfred Adask
During a war, when our very survival
may be at stake, constitutional protections
for our God-given, “unalienable rights” are
largely suspended to allow government to
exercise whatever unbridled, dictatorial powers
are necessary to win the war and ensure
our survival. Essentially, protecting our
rights takes second place to protecting our
lives. When the war is over, constitutional
protections should be restored.
The Great Depression threatened our
economy but not our survival. Nevertheless,
in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt
declared a National Emergency and asked
Congress to grant him “emergency powers”
equal to those he’d exercise during a
wartime threat to our survival. Congress
obliged and gave FDR executive powers far
beyond the intent and limits of the Constitution
to end the Depression. However, though
the Depression ended with World War II,
FDR’s 1933 “national emergency” has continued
unabated for sixty-six years.
In 1994, Dr. Gene Schroder exposed
our unending “national emergency” and its
anti-constitutional effect on our liberties. I.e.,
as a result of the 1933 “national emergency,”
our government still exercises enormous
non-constitutional powers and We the People
have only a semblance of our former constitutionally-protected
rights. To date, no solution
has been found to force government
to admit the “emergency” is over, surrender
its emergency powers and restore con-
stitutional protections for all of our unalienable
rights.
On May 27, 1999, the chief prosecutor
at the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia, indicted Yugoslavia
President Slobodan Milosevic and four top
aides for war crimes. Milosevic’s indictment
offers some surprising insight for ending
America’s own “national emergencies”.
The first late-night TV report of
Milosevic’s indictment explained its legal
foundation: Milosevic personally invoked a
national emergency to suspend his country’s
constitution and gain “emergency” powers
which he abused by implementing his policy
of “ethnic cleansing”. Under international
law, since Milosevic personally invoked the
“emergency,” he is also personally responsible
for whatever crimes or abuses are committed
under “his” emergency. He and his
four aides abused their emergency powers and
were thereforce charged as a war criminals.
I’ve seen no further reference to the relationship
between emergency powers, international
law, and personal responsibility
for officials who invoke emergencies since
that first late-night TV newscast. I’m not
surprised. I am amazed, however, that even
one newscast let that cat out of the bag.
Those of you who study our own “national
emergency” (invoked in 1933 and sustained
by every succeeding President) might
do well to study Milosevic’s indictment. If,
under international law, Milosevic is person-
ally responsible for damages committed under
an emergency he invoked, it follows that,
under international law, Bill Clinton (the one
person responsible for sustaining our current
national emergency) might also be personally
liable for any damages or crimes committed
by our government while exercising
“emergency (non-constitutional) powers”.
This makes surprising sense: even
though an “emergency” has been declared,
someone must still be legally liable for whatever
abuses take place under that emergency.
(It’s a little like shouting “Fire!” in a crowded
theater; if there’s no real fire, whoever declared
the emergency is liable for any subsequent
damages.) Until now, we’d assumed
that once an emergency was declared, government
not only gained enormous powers
but also lost all accountability for abusing those
powers. We therefore assumed we had no
remedy to enforce our rights or hold anyone
in government accountable for abuse.
However, if the President alone is empowered
to initiate, sustain or terminate a
“national emergency,” it follows that the President
may also be solely responsible for whatever
abuses occur under “his” emergency.
Thus, Milosovic’s indictment implies that the
remedy for ending America’s 66-year old
“emergency,” may be to sue our President in
his personal capacity under international law
for whatever damages have been sustained
during his administration’s “emergency”.
96 ANTISHYSTER Volume 9 (1999 A.D.) www.antishyster.com adask@gte.net 972-418-8993